Syrians living inside government controlled areas went to vote in a ballot described as a "parody of democracy" today while shelling continued in rebel controlled areas.

President Bashar al-Assad is widely expected to win a third seven year term in office, but the bloody civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of his citizens seems no closer to ending, as Diplomatic Correspondent John Ray reports.

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The Syrian president - Bashar al-Assad - has cast his vote in a controversial presidential election, which he is widely expected to win.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad votes in elections on June 3. Credit: RTV

The balloting, Syria's first multi-candidate election in more than 40 years, comes as a devastating, three-year civil war that activists say has killed more than 160,000 people, about a third of them civilians, rages on.

The opposition and government critics have condemned the vote as a sham. Syria's two main internal opposition groups are boycotting the vote while many activists around the country refer to it as "blood elections".

Polls have opened in Syria's government-held areas, amid massive security for the country's presidential election - a vote Bashar Assad is widely expected to win.

A Syrian woman casts her vote inside a polling station during the presidential election in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, June 3, 2014. Credit: AP Photo

The balloting, Syria's first multi-candidate election in more than 40 years, comes as a devastating, three-year civil war that activists say has killed more than 160,000 people, about a third of them civilians, rages on.

People cast their vote at a polling station in Damascus June 3, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Sanadiki

The opposition and government critics have condemned the vote as a sham. Syria's two main internal opposition groups are boycotting the vote while many activists around the country refer to it as "blood elections".

Tens of thousands of Syrians abroad voted last week, although many of the more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees across the region either abstained or were excluded by voting laws.

A photographer, working with renowned war correspondent Marie Colvin when she was killed in Syria, has said the Presidential elections are seen as "so grotesque" in Syria, most citizens think the ballot is "a joke".

Paul Conroy told Good Morning Britain Syrians "just laugh" at the elections as the country continues to be ripped apart by a three-year-long civil war.

President Bashar al-Assad is widely expected to win a third seven-year term in office today.

Today's elections are the first multi-candidate presidential elections in Syria for 50 years.

However, the Syrian opposition and its Western allies have denounced the election as a sham designed to lend Assad a veneer of electoral legitimacy as the regime barred exiles from standing and with candidates needing the endorsement of 35 members of the state-controlled parliament.

The United States has called the vote a "parody of democracy". There will be no polling stations in much of the countryside, notably northern and eastern Syria and around Damascus, or in areas of certain cities under rebel control.